The Lock

The prime minister of an ancient kingdom died. It was a custom in that land to choose the wisest man in the country for that post. To this end, many were examined and three were chosen. They were sent to the capital for the final test.
When they arrived in the city, they were tense and worried, wondering what the final test would be– like any student. They asked whoever they met if they could tell them what the test was going to be; and were surprised to hear that everyone knew. The king had built a special room that was fitted with a lock that opened only with a mathematical solution. They would be kept within this room, and the first to come out, would become the prime minister.
Two from among them were very worried, but the third made straight for his room and went to
bed. The other two thought; "Maybe he has already given up!” These two ran to the shops and
bought all books that contained information on locks, and sat poring over them the whole night. They knew everything about everything but locks; for they were neither thieves nor locksmiths, nor engineers, nor politicians. They were in a fix! They made inquiries from locksmiths and mathematicians. They asked engineers; they read all night for it was a question of their future; and the sacrifice of one night’s sleep was not too great.
The third contestant got up refreshed after a good night’s rest. He washed his face, got ready and left for the palace with the others. The rumours were correct. The king took them to the house where the much-talked of lock was, and explained: "This lock opens with a mathematical figure. He who opens it first becomes my prime minister. I shall wait outside.”
The three men entered the room, and the door was closed. The one who had slept all night went
into a corner, and sat with his eyes closed. The other two laughed: "Can locks be opened by closing the eyes?” They jeered. They dismissed him for a stupid fellow, and plunged into their work. They brought out the books they had smuggled in. and began to pore over them.
As soon as the doors closed, they drew out their books. The third man sat for about half an hour.
Then he walked silently up to the door. The other two were too busy to notice him. When he reached the door, he tried the lock. Lo, it was open! All he had to do was to walk out! The king came in and told the other two to fold up their books. He had chosen his prime minister.
”The man who was to come out, has come out!” he said.
”But how could he? He had done nothing!”
”There was nothing to be done,” said the king. ”The lock was merely hung, and not fastened. I had gathered that the most intelligent of you will not first inspect whether the lock was really locked.” Before solving a problem, is it not necessary to first find out whether the problem actually exists? If it exists, it needs to be solved but if it does not, how can it be solved? This man demonstrated his wisdom. He first set out to know whether the problem existed. That is the first sign of an intelligent man.

The Confusion

When I was working for my earlier company Voltas, we had a driver called Nathan. Nathan had this uncanny habit of using a combination of Hindi and English words in any sentence. Who could have ever thought that one day; this habit of his would lead to such Confusion.
This incident took place when we were doing the Villagio Mall project. Those days we used to operate from the site office and almost the entire project team was newly recruited. We had Milind, the new mechanical engineer - Tall, dark & handsome – just like me – But no he was much taller – about 6 feet 3 inches. The driver Nathan I have already introduced in the beginning.
Then we had – Sadanand, our receptionist, a perpetually jittery character.
And last but not the least we had a new office boy. He was short guy with a very peculiar name - Mohan Kumar Limboo. Hardly anybody called him Mohan, we all loved to call him Limboo, which incidentally means lemon in Hindi.
Now, one day Milind, the tall mechanical engineer had ordered some masking tape from one of the hardware suppliers and asked Nathan, the driver to collect it. As Nathan was going out, Limboo caught hold of him and requested him to buy some bread on his way back.
Nathan reached the hardware stores & approached the salesman at the counter.
“Sir, I’m from Voltas and I’ve come to collect the masking tape.”
“Yes yes - So, which one do you want?”
“What sir?”
“I said which one do you want, white or brown?”
“I don’t know sir”
“If you don’t know then ask your sir”
“Wait sir, I call sir”
Now Nathan called up Sadanand and said
“Can I speak to Lamboo sir, please?”
Lamboo means tall in Hindi. And Sadanand probably didn’t hear him properly and instead of transferring to Milind, he promptly transferred the line to the office boy Limboo. Limboo wondered - why the hell is he calling me? I only asked him to buy bread. And Limboo answered.
“Hello”
But by this time Nathan decided not to confront his boss and gave the telephone to the salesman.
The store fellow said - “Ya, hello – which one do you want white or brown?”
“I beg your pardon?” said Limboo
“Which one do you want? White or brown?”
Limboo replied.
“Anything will do– but it should be fresh”
“Pardon sir”
“I said, It should be fresh”
The counter fellow wondered – Just look at the quality of engineers we have these days –They don’t even know proper English – using an adjective fresh to describe brand new. So he replied
“Don’t worry sir , its all brand new but do you want 35 yards or 45 yards”
Limboo was simply stunned and now he understood, Nathan was trying to pull a fast one on him, so he decided to give him a smart reply
“Whatever it is -I want a sliced one”
“Pardon sir?”
“I said, I want it to be sliced’
This was too much for the counter fellow to handle and he called his supervisor. The supervisor was annoyed.
“Why what happened – can’t you handle simple orders such as masking tape?” He grabbed the telephone and said
"Hello, who's speaking please?"
"Limboo speaking"
"Pardon me"
"Limboo speaking"
"Can I speak to Milind"
Its only when Milind spoke to the shop supervisor that this whole confusion was cleared.

This incident has taught me an important thing - Always address people by their proper names.